Formative Tutoring: A Program for the Empowerment of Engineering Students

Abstract

Contribution: A model of tutoring program for the empowerment of engineering students in the information and communication technologies (ICT) area is proposed, as a mean to improve academic performance. Background: ICT students failing to proceed smoothly along their study path, and possibly abandoning university before graduating, is becoming a significant phenomenon in many countries. This is an important issue both from the student side and from the university side: the former is facing social and economic consequences, while the latter may be hindered in the ranking systems. Intended Outcomes: Design and application of tutoring actions that can lead students to empower themselves, develop several soft skills, and eventually improve personal and academic success. Application Design: Starting from the literature on tutoring, the approach of the “Tutorìa formativa de carrera” has been selected, because it considers students as the center of the learning model. The tutoring interventions have been then redesigned and tailored to the specific context of ICT courses. Findings: The effectiveness of the proposed program has been assessed by means of different indicators: self-perception of the participating students (based on Cawi surveys), success rate at the first mathematical exams as a short-term qualitative indicator, and long-term figures of merits of the students’ career. In the latter case, proper techniques are used in order to create a quasi-experiment context. A significant impact of the proposed program is found for both students with high and low a-priori propensity to academic failure.